A complete and accurate surgical excision of cancers, while preserving as much of the surrounding normal tissue as intact as possible, can be guided by the examination of pathology for residual cancer margins. However, a preparation of the pathology can be labor-intensive, and can be time-consuming. The processing of excised tissue and preparation of thin sections for pathology can take hours (e.g., for frozen sections) or days (e.g., for fixed sections), which can result in insufficient sampling of tissue, and inaccurate and/or incomplete removal of cancer. Consequently, a large number (e.g., between about 20% and 70%, depending on the setting) of patients undergo re-excision (e.g., repeat surgery) and/or chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.
Confocal microscopy can image nuclear and cellular morphology in living tissues, either in vivo or in freshly excised, or biopsied, tissue ex vivo, without the need for processing tissue or preparation of thin sections. A detection of residual cancer margins can be made possible in fresh tissue within minutes. Rapid mosaicking, for example, acquisition and stitching together of a large number of images, can facilitate imaging over large areas.
Accordingly, there may be a need to address and/or overcome at least some of the above-described deficiencies and limitations, and to provide exemplary embodiments of devices according to the present disclosure as described in further details herein.